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Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Making life beautiful {accepting things you cannot change}

In my garden, there is a corner I have tried to ignore since we moved into the house. For a start, it's at the front, where we spend less time, so easy to neglect. Secondly, it contains something that I considered ugly and an eye sore.

Laurel roots.

Big, ugly laurel roots.

Robert has been painstakingly trying to kill them off, drilling holes in them, and putting in treatment to kill them off. It's not a quick fix, and they are still there. Without heavy, expensive to hire, equipment, they are not going anywhere in a hurry. This year was the worst. There were thick patches of nettles and dandelions all around them, making it so much worse.

Instead of griping and being frustrated about the "ugly" patch, I realised there was something I COULD do. I couldn't get rid of the roots, but I could clear the weeds, and make a FEATURE of the roots!! I could make it something beautiful, by working around, and with, it.

Those weeds were hard work. The nettle roots were like an underground network, and the dandelions had roots like a tree. It was no easy fix, but it looked so much better with them gone.

I popped off to the garden centre, picking up some pretty, flowering plants. I wanted plants that would not just try and cover up the roots, but to make them look like part of my garden. As if they were supposed to be there, rather than me just making do.

The day I attacked my garden, I happened to be struggling with a situation in my life, which was irking me. A situation that was not likely to change in a hurry, but I was allowing it to bother me, and rob me of my joy and peace. It was a circumstance that wasn't in my power to change, yet I was letting it fester away and irritate me. My heart and my attitude weren't at ALL beautiful, as I chewed over my frustrations.

It hit me.

My life is like those roots in my garden. There are some things in all our lives, that we simply cannot change. It's not in our power, or perhaps not our responsibility, to change. Allowing it to bother us is simply showing lack of contentment in God's plan for us, or lack of patience whilst we pray for a change, which may happen in the future. If we allow it to negatively affect us, it's not very beautiful, at ALL.

We can, however, be responsible for how we accept, and deal with, our circumstances. If we remember exhortations in the scriptures to "rejoice evermore", "in everything give thanks", "pray without ceasing", "be content with such things as ye have", and put them into practice, we will have much more joy and peace in our life.

It would be so easy to sit, frustrated and irritated, madly praying for the Lord to change our situation, when we could, instead, be living joyfully, and contentedly, in the situation we are in.

In time, the Lord may answer your prayers, and changes may come.... Or, they may not.

We can choose to live with joy, or we can choose to be miserable.

Don't fight the situation that the Lord is allowing you to walk through. Embrace it, and live it with joy.

Go ahead, and plant some "flowers" in your life, and choose to make your situation beautiful, instead of being frustrated with a wasteland.